This invention relates to an electric timepiece and, more particularly an electric timepiece which displays not only the time but also termination of the life of the battery used to drive the timepiece, as environmental condition such as temperature, humidity or other conditions of the timepiece.
The most serious problem encountered in an electric timepiece driven by a battery is the termination of the life of the battery. As the end of the battery's life is approached, the voltage of the battery decreases thus causing inaccurate operation, and when the life ends or is terminated, the operation of the timepiece stops. According to a prior art method of alarming indicating the termination of the life of the battery a luminous element having a predetermined operating voltage is provided and the luminous element is intermittently flashed by means of a clock pulse several days before termination of the battery life, the voltage of the battery decreases below the operating voltage of the luminous element thus preventing its operation. According to another method, the luminous element is normally maintained inoperative but caused to intermittently flash when the voltage of the battery decreases below a predetermined value. Accordingly, since the luminous element constantly flashes, the power consumption is large consequently, it is necessary to use a battery having larger capacity. Power consumption is thereby increased when the end of the battery's life is approached thus accelerating exhaustion of the battery.